What's news

Energy

Baosteel set to take control of Aquila

Baosteel Group Corp, the owner of China's biggest publicly traded steelmaker, will take control of Australia's Aquila Resources Ltd after the third-largest shareholder accepted its bid.

Baosteel and partner Aurizon Holdings Ltd "entered into an agreement with Aquila to facilitate the orderly transition of control and management", the bidders said in a statement. Baosteel's A $3.40 per-share cash offer values Aquila at about A$1.4 billion ($1.3 billion).

The deal will give Baosteel a share of the A$7.4 billion West Pilbara iron ore mine, port and rail project in Western Australia. It is seeking to accelerate development to meet steel demand in China, the world's biggest market.

CNPC wins natural gas pipeline project order

China National Petroleum Corp, the nation's biggest oil and gas producer, won its second order from Reliance Industries Ltd to build a natural gas pipeline in India. CNPC will build 200 km of the 302-km pipeline from central India to the north of the country, according to CNPC's newspaper China Petroleum Daily.

Oversupply of aluminum shrinks

Rising demand and the closure of about 2 million metric tons of aluminum capacity are likely to reduce an expected surplus of the metal in China this year. That would help reinvigorate aluminum prices in the world's top consumer and producer of the commodity, underpinning a global benchmark that has already risen about15 percent since touching its lowest in more than four years in February.

Metals sector benefits from policy easing

Industrial metals will probably be the greatest beneficiaries of China's intensifying policy-easing measures in the third quarter, according to Morgan Stanley. Economic growth in China is set to improve, helped by easing and stronger export markets, metals analysts wrote in a report on July 8, citing the bank's chief economist for China.

Aviation

China to present Tonga with Yun-12 aircraft

China will donate one domestically manufactured aircraft Yun-12 to Tonga to provide air service in the southern Pacific country.

Debuting in the early 1980s, the 17-seat Yun-12 was designed and developed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. About 212 have been sold to more than 20 countries and regions.

The new aircraft will be handled over to Tonga in late July or early August to support its local transportation and economic growth.

Exchanges

Zambia to study China's economic zone

Officials from the Zambian government will travel to China to study how the Asian nation was implementing the Multi-Facility Economic Zones concept.

Zambia has so far established Multi-Facility Economic Zones in Lusaka, the country's capital, and Chambishi town in the Copperbelt Province while plans to establish the facility in other towns are currently underway.

Central Province Permanent Secretary Edwidge Mutale said the government was planning to undertake a visit to China to learn how economic zones were being implemented in China.

"Before we think of establishing a Multi-Facility Economic Zone in our province, we will have to undertake a site visit to China. I believe this is very important because we will be able to learn how the economic zones are implemented in that country," she said.

Auto

Vehicle sales rise with small-cities push

Passenger-vehicle sales in China rose last month, as foreign carmakers stepped up their push into smaller cities with cheaper models in a challenge to local carmakers. Retail deliveries of cars, multipurpose and sport utility vehicles climbed 14 percent to 1.47 million units in June, the Passenger Car Association said. For the first six months, sales rose 11 percent to 9.09 million.

Finance

Central bank plans toensure steady growth

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, said on July 7 that it will use various monetary tools to maintain reasonable growth in credit and to keep overall liquidity at an appropriate level. In a statement to summarize the second-quarter monetary policy committee meeting, the People's Bank of China also said it would continue to implement prudent monetary policy, while pushing ahead with interest rate and yuan exchange rate reforms.

China to improve tax breaks for county lenders

The Ministry of Finance said it will improve tax breaks and rebates for county-level financial institutions to channel capital back into rural society. County-level institutions that have expanded loans to agriculture-related enterprises and farmers by more than 15 percent will qualify for a rebate of 2 percent of that expansion. The ministry also said a policy of "preferential rural banking taxation" will be implemented.

Trade

Shanghai zonestreamlines tax

The China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone will help corporate taxpayers by setting up an online platform that streamlines tax registration and payment. The State Administration of Taxation will pilot 10 measures in the zone, including the automatic generation of entity tax codes, tax approval and registration, tax inquiries, declaration and payment, through the Internet. Under the initiative, corporations will be able to skirt sophisticated procedures to apply for registration at local tax bureaus.

Policy

More foreign fundingof hospitals studied

The government is conducting research on allowing foreign investors to set up wholly funded hospitals and medical care institutions in some key Chinese cities, an official with the Ministry of Commerce of China said in Geneva. Wang Shouwen, assistant to the commerce minister, said the government is considering allowing wholly foreign-owned hospitals in seven cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, which is a move to further open China's service industry to overseas investors.

Economy

Moderate growth ininflation predicted

An upcoming release of official economic data is likely to show that the consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, may moderate to growth of between 2.3 and 2.4 percent in June, down from 2.5 percent in May, economists say. A median forecast by the Bank of Communications said the index probably grew 2.4 percent last month.

Logistics activity picks up pace

China's logistics activity picked up last month as the economy showed more signs of stabilizing, official data showed. The logistics performance index for June came in at 56.7 percent, 1.5 percentage points higher than a month earlier, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said. In a breakdown, the index for new orders stood at 55.3 percent, recovering 1.6 percentage points from that in May.

Industry

Semiconductor deal for Chinese company

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp has secured orders from Qualcomm Inc to make chips for the world's largest supplier of smartphone processors. SMIC, based in Shanghai, will work with the chip designer based in San Diego, California, to make its Snapdragon processors, the companies said.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/11/2014 page18)